Love me for a reason
by Angelbyyourside
Summary: Break this bittersweet spell on me, lost in the arms of destiny.  Draco is trapped in a dark world and he has a huge secret...can he break away from his fathers expectations and choose his own path?
1. Chapter 1

He left as silently as he had entered. Nobody saw, nobody cared and nobody was sane enough anyway. This was the dungeon of Malfoy Manor. An evil place where the smell of death still lingers in the air even after all the enchantments had been placed on it. For months now his father had been keeping muggles here for his personal entertainment and practicing the Unforgivable Curses on them until the whole grounds were alive with the sound of tortured souls echoing mournfully throughout the night. Draco was sick of it and had tried to put an end to it or at least stop their suffering for them.

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"Avada Kedavra" he whispered for the thirteenth time that night. This time a muggle girl of about 16 slid to the floor with a slight thud. She was quite pretty when she first entered the dungeon. But after months of terror and pain had her features had changed into permanent grimaces and eyes that looked out of her bars, empty. She knew she'd die when Draco came up to her and for that she was thankful. She raised her head up and her hands released the right grasp she'd had on her mangled red locks to stare deeply into his eyes. One green flash of light later and the light in her was out.

She was the last to be saved that night. He couldn't do too many at a time otherwise his father would get too suspicious. For now it was reasonable enough that they were dying with the sheer quantity of curses that were being thrown upon them. Draco had left it a bit late to be doing this tonight but he carried on regardless. He knew that his father would be down soon for more "evening entertainments" so with the thirteenth done he started to make his way out onto the grounds via the secret back entrance. Once outside he counted to ten and sure enough the screams of terror began and the dark creatures came skulking forwards to see what the commotion was. This was Draco's cue to go inside.

Angrily, he thought that he could no longer save them, for tomorrow he was going back to Hogwarts.

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Platform 9 and ¾'s was nearly full of smiling kids and tearful parents when Draco had got there at 10.30. The train didn't leave till 11 as usual and he had half an hour to wait out all the sickening displays of affection before they could be on their way.

"Draco! Draco, over here! I saved you a seat." Pansy squealed with delight when she saw her favourite blonde moving swiftly through the crowds. She withdrew her head from the window and swivelled in her seat to watch him come into the carriage.

He looked Pansy up and down with one side of his mouth turned up in displeasure. "Where's the others?" he snapped, irritated that it was just those two in the carriage…Alone. He shuddered at the thought.

"Crabbe and Goyle have gone looking for the food trolley already. Apparently two breakfast's aren't enough for those two." She giggled in a high-pitched manner and added "I haven't had anything all morning. I'm trying to lose weight for this Christmas" she added, shamelessly fishing for a compliment about her slim figure.

Draco took the hint and looked her up and down. Sure she was thin but she was so thin she looked like a child. Her bones were jutting out at her hips and her collarbone stuck out so far it looked like she could fit food in the gaps of her neck.

"You look far too skinny as it is." Draco added truthfully.

Pansy mistook this as a compliment and grinned happy enough for now to leave him be.

He was bored of her company already and took to staring out of the window. His thoughts kept drifting back to the poor muggle girl in the dungeons at his house. She looked very familiar and it pained him to kill her but they both knew it was for the best.

"Ron! Come here…you forgot you're sandwiches. There you go, now don't go forgetting them otherwise you'll be starving when you get there. That's right. Take care. Don't go doing anything silly this year. You too Harry." The reprimands of the Weasley mother snapped Draco out of his daydream and his eyes focused on the scene before him. Potter was getting crushed by the Weasley mother and the rest were making a little queue before her to give her a customary hug before boarding the train. Last to hug her was the youngest Weasley. He'd yet to hear her name being mentioned as they always had some horrid nickname for her like "baby" or "honey". As she turned around to look at the train before boarding she saw him staring and glared at him forcefully for a full minute before Hermione yelled, "Come on honey, the train's leaving in a second." Ginny gave him one last glance through the window then hopped on the train into another carriage.


	2. Chapter 2

"…And then I said to daddy, why can't I have two unicorns? That bitch in Ravenclaw has two, so by rights I should have three. Daddy didn't agree and told me to stop being so childish. Mother is working on him now if you know what I mean." Pansy winked at Draco in a suggestive manner and had he been paying attention to what she was saying he would have been disgusted. As it was he just nodded and looked away again.

Pansy saw that she was getting nothing from Draco in the way of conversation so she tried a more direct approach. Sliding over delicately, she placed her hand on his arm and started to rub in what she thought was a soothing motion. Draco was too wrapped up in his own world to notice what she was trying to do. Just as she moved in for the kiss the compartment door slammed open. Draco's head shot round to look at the door, and at the same time his chin smashed into Pansy's nose with a resounding crack. Blood poured forth and Pansy's scream echoed throughout the whole train. Within seconds their carriage was invaded by the golden trio who happened to be passing by and had their wands drawn straight at Draco. Potter was the closest.

"What the fuck have you done to her?" He yelled, eyes full of fury and hatred.

For the most part Draco was confused. She was a Slytherin. Why would Potter care what had happened to her. Then he remembered his stupid hero tendencies that extended to anybody who looked in the slightest need of saving. He supposed that right now Pansy fitted into that category what with all the blood gushing from her face and the blood curdling scream that she'd just omitted.

"What does it look like Potter? I hit her and…" before Draco could finish off the rest of his sarcastic comment he'd been hit by a powerful expelliarmus. He felt himself be thrown against the window and his head made contact loudly and painfully with the frame causing the wound to bleed profusely. Shaking off the initial wooziness he felt, he jumped up absolutely fuming and at lightening speed had managed to grab his wand and had it shoved under Harry's nose all in under 3 seconds.

"Now that was a nasty little trick _Potter_," he hissed under his breath, well aware of the other do-gooders behind Harry. Not wanting to murder Harry right there in front of an audience (he felt that he would get expelled for sure if he did what he so desired) he chose to take the high road and leave him with a warning that was very clear. Revenge was immanent.

"As soon as your back is turned, I will take something from you that you hold most dear. Make no mistake Potter, I will get you for this." Draco had nothing in mind particularly but was sure that something would come to mind. For instance that cloak of his might be a nice little investment.

The place was silent. Hermione was the first to break it, "Maybe we should go now. Pansy, are you coming?"

Her kindness was lost on the other girl and she only gave her the filthiest look she could muster, (under the circumstances) however the effect was ruined by the sheer amount of blood dripping steadily from her nose giving the glare less credit than it deserved. The trio took the hint and left.

Outside, Ginny was coming up the corridor to see what all the commotion was. "What were you guys doing in there? And what was all the screaming?" She enquired, taking in their anxious yet angry faces.

"Nothing." Was Harry's abrupt reply.

Ginny pouted and folded her arms across her chest. Her ears started to turn red in anger at the vague and completely uninformative answer. "I'm not a child you know. I'm only one fucking year younger than you. I can take it you know"

"Ginny!" Ron admonished loudly.

"What? So it's only the "Golden Trio" who are allowed to swear now? I'm sick of these fucking double standards. You can swear, I can't, you can get in other peoples business and I can't. You're unbelievable. The lot of you."

"Now come on" Hermione soothed "Harry was going to tell you all about it when we got back to the carriage, he doesn't want to talk right outside where they can still hear us."

"No I wasn-"

"Come on, the lunch trolley should be here any second." Hermione continued, speaking over Harry's protestations.

"Ah, lunch. Finally. Wasn't looking forward to corned beef sandwiches."

Ginny knew that she was being given the brush off but she'd be damned if she couldn't get the full story out of Hermione later. As they walked into their own carriage Ginny stayed outside thinking and cooling off. Something had gone on and she had a sneaky suspicion that it was something to do with Malfoy. Already. They were not even at the school yet and they'd started on each other. She could only wonder at what could possibly cause them to argue so soon. She wondered no longer when she saw Pansy leaving the door the other three had just exited from, holding a bloody tissue to her nose. The cogs started turning in her brain and she found herself coming up with a multitude of explanations for this – one being that Draco had hit her. Draco left soon after to follow her to the toilet. His eyes met her fierce brown ones and he was surprised to see that there was curiosity in them as well as the usual hatred. He continued staring at her and ended up walking into a closed door. Cursing at his stupidity, he corrected himself, head held high and carried on as if nothing happened.


End file.
